This invention pertains to an integrated display and burial containment system having a group of structural components which duplicates the use of an expensive casket and a sealer vault but by means of relatively low-cost components.
Conventional funeral practice embodies the use of a casket for viewing which may be of varying cost and frequently quite expensive, followed by placement of the casket in a sealer vault for burial. The cost that goes into the sometimes ornate casket or, at least, the cost beyond the essential function of a casket to be a storage container is wasted, since the casket is buried.
One direction toward reducing cost is to have a tray or other similar structure removably mounted in a conventional casket and with the casket then being reusable. There could be problems, either real or imagined, with respect to continual re-use of a casket. An example of this type of structure is shown in Doggett U.S. Pat. No. 3,810,282.
Other structures to reduce cost include a casket of moldable plastic and also a combined casket and vault structure of plastic with an example of the latter being illustrated in Behrendt U.S. Pat. No. 3,295,179. These structures still involve unnecessary costs in attempting to make the unit look like a conventional casket and with the costs directed to such efforts not being recaptured, but being buried.
The prior activity in the field has not resulted in a low-cost, integrated display and burial containment system wherein the components of the system are designed of molded plastic construction and with no burial of a conventional casket-type structure.